


Does the Deer in the Forest Know Her Name as She Runs?

by drneroisgod



Category: H.I.V.E. Series - Mark Walden
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Lowercase, Short One Shot, i feel like there isn't enough wingelby nonsense in this fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28970658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drneroisgod/pseuds/drneroisgod
Summary: After the events of Overlord, Wing and Shelby begin a workout regimen that brings them closer together.
Relationships: Wing Fanchu/Shelby Trinity
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Does the Deer in the Forest Know Her Name as She Runs?

the day after his father died, wing got up early. his mentor, lao, burned vividly in his mind. he wondered what the old martial arts master would have to say about all of this. wing had been little more than a child when his mother died, and it seemed that cypher had been born shortly after. they were a family of villains, wing knew this. but he still hadn’t seen the signs.

perhaps lao had. wing remembered the transition to a single-parent household as an exercise in longer hours and harder blows. his mentor may have realized wing had hard days ahead of him at a time when wing could not see past the grief of the next hour, the next minute.

it was thanks to lao that self-defense was wing’s first language. after the events in tokyo, wing knew that it wasn’t enough. for an hour he threw himself into an uncompromising regimen: stretches, squats, lunges, deadlifts, dumbbells. 

after he showered he saw shelby running laps around the perimeter of the gym, one floor up. he waved but, if she saw him, she ignored him. 

he got used to seeing her every morning, he enclosed in the forest of lifting equipment and her teeth bared in a growl as she ran. he watched and he wondered why she was running, but they never spoke in the mornings and they never brought it up after. and, in the end, she never asked him to join her: when they locked eyes one morning she raised her eyebrows and jutted her chin with a predatory smile. without a word, wing followed. 

she did not slow down for him and, that first day, he did not catch up. she lapped him three times before breakfast and, when they made it to the dining hall, swiftly moved in front of him to take the first spot in line.

occasionally he could convince her to spar with him in the afternoons after class, and her laughter was as taut as her tendons. she knew than to trust the enemy. wing knew better than to tug the tiger’s tail. yet every time he saw her smile, he felt the irresistible urge to pull.

in time, he caught up with her. step for step, stripe for stripe, they kept pace around the track. it was never a race until the last moments, when shelby would sprint to make it to the locker room doors before he could. sometimes, she won. even in her victories, they kept their silence like penance. 

wing thought she, also, wished she had been different.

they ran, they ran, they ran. 

she tripped. wing stopped dead at once, reaching out a hand to help. shelby was already up, one foot planted on a bench to tie the errant shoelace that had ensnared her. wing watched, though he wondered if she might have kept running if it had been him. 

“you okay?” he asked. 

she looked at him with a shamed face. her knee was bleeding. “i had a dream you were dead,” she said distantly, and took off again without another word. wing let her get a ten-second head start before he followed, determined to ask if he managed to catch her.


End file.
